Steven_C

unbelievable! ;D BTW TK, the new mb sid page is very nice, I like Ian's pile of c64's, but I'm not sure if I can cannibalise my old c64 :'(, but then again.... BTW, what is wavetable synthesis? is it loading a waveform into the chip or something? (If this requires a long explanation, then just tell me to look on the net somewhere!)

Hey Smash, good points! Maybe it will be more fun that way too, and keeping in the excellent philosophy of a free project. ;D BTW, I looked at your ordering site, and it is great! I hope Thorsten puts up a link, cos those 3d pics will make it easier for anyone to work out where to put the bits! Expect orders from me, and my buddies who need help soon! (no more rsi from drilling pcb's for me! ...I hope your drilling is automated... ;)) BTW, I don't mind long posts, when they have something good to say! Hey Ian, sorry to get way off topic, but I'm pretty sure you don't mind!

good to hear you guys are having success... Dan, are you going to use the LC emulation? Smash, you sound happy with your 'box, could you post the settings you used, mf voltage, ain deadband, mf deadband, fader speed? Are you using mios 1.2 or 1.3? is it LC application? My midibox LC still has good days and bad days, so I'm glad to hear that others are having good results! ;D BTW Dan, yes, I meant 2A for whole thing (though I only have 1.6A, but I tried 10A once! but no advantage.) ...Steve

Also, you may find reading independant reviews of the mackie control helpfull as well

Thanks for clearing that up Thorsten, Looks like I didn't read the GPL properly :-[. I'm sure everyone will understand Thorsten's viewpoint... I really understand the value of spare time, in this world, especially if you have an employer (like I used to) who dosen't understand this! Robotfunk... yes nothing beats a real midibox! and I would never want to do anything to jeopardise the open source commuity that comes with the midibox Maybe I will rethink whether I help these people for money or not... maybe I will ask them to give me some parts for my next midibox in exchange for my time in helping them with midibox creation! have fun with those midiboxes, from Steve

I'm on holidays though, time to finish my LC!

I thought all the user-editable functions would be in the .asm file, which I opened with no probs in MPlab, but maybe you are doing something a bit more complicated than I think?

Hey Dr B... I bought one of those $0.80 very cheap alps LED buttons to try, but I didn't buy anymore, as (a) they need a square hole to look neat (more work) (b) The main problem is that the LED is deep down in the switch, and you need to look straight down from the top, to see if the LED is lit or not... Though maybe the clear plastic lid can be frosted, to diffuse/disperse the light from the LED so it can be visible from an angle? (frosted by use of a bead blaster, on the back of the removeable clear plastic top, but would be very tricky, and I wouldn't want to do more than a few by hand....)

I will try to explain the little help I know how to offer... Note that the LC is only really for using Logic Audio. Try to get info on the housten controller, read reviews... do a search on google, see if it will help your cubase needs (for cubase SX only, not sure about SL) I haven't worked out how to use the "General Purpose Layer" yet, but apparently you can switch from the LC emulation (not sure about Housten) to another mode which is probably more like a normal midibox, but I don't really know much, sorry. For softsynths, yes, encoders are the way to go. I hope someone else can give more advice than I can...

not big enough for a convention, if that's what you mean, and not big enough for a secret midibox factory either ;) Robotfunk.. (that name is so cool! ;D) yes I understand your thinking, I have often thought about whether Thorsten would want to license his ideas as well (for purposes like what you mentioned), but I feel that Thorsten wouldn't be interested, as maybe he is already happy with the amount of money he earns. On another note Many friends have asked me to build a LC clone for them, and offered me money to do this, and I tell them... "I will sit down with you, work out the features you want, and work out a parts list, you can go and buy the parts, and if you can't put it together yourself, I will charge a small fee to put it together for you" (I haven't done this for anyone yet) I think this is still ok ??? (tell me what you think Thorsten?) as they are having creative control, seeing the coming together of their project, although I would get some money (a small amount compared to standard labour rates, to cover my time, say $100 or less for all the effort I would put in, this would really be only a token payment, hardly called profit) Well maybe this isn't what Thorsten wants for his project. Tell me what you think TK? (feel free to delete this message if you think it could encourage misuse of your hard work) Anyway, I think that soon the price of commercial controllers will come crashing down anyway. Maybe you can design a custom surface, and connect it to a cheap commercially built controller? For much less effort than building midiboxes? good luck with your software... bye, from Steve

BTW if you have any trouble converting the .asm files into .syx files, I can do this for you. Also, I could send you the version of the LC emu that has worked the best for me, as a starting point, if you like

The motorfader app is to try different values for "ain deadband" "mf deadband" and "speed". You try different values, by pressing the buttons connected to din register 1. You move fader 1, and try different values, to try to get the other faders moving as smoothly as possible, as they follow it. This is only a rough guide (depending on the quality of your faders) and you may need further tweaking once you have installed your final application. OK, the faders hitting the bottom, and'buzzing' away at the end of their travel suggests the same problem I have. The faders (panasonic I assume) are not reaching true zero volts, or zero ohms, due to poor design. (feel free to flame me LO ;) I know you love your panasonics) you may be able to increase the deadbands to compensate (check documentation within the .asm file of calibrate and LC emu/houston emu/mackie emu for details, lyou will need to use perl for this) 12v 2A should be completely adequate for this. also if mios 1.3 dosen't work well for the mf's, then try mios1.2, and application in 1.2version as well. Good luck Dan, good to see you are moving along now ;D bye, from Steve

I have some ultramatched transistor pairs, and other bits that I was going to use for a diy moog filter once, but the pcb I was going to buy went out of production... but how hard to build is your filter project Thorsten? Does it use hard to get parts? I'd like to use the bits I have, if I can... or maybe you can put them to use Thorsten? Can you easily get the bits you need? BTW nice knobs! (from Waldorf, I assume, from months back someone did an oder I think I remember!!)

I guess we rely on peoples goodwill to not abuse the system... the midibox system is kind of a gift to us. Thorsten has made a choice to genorously share his ideas and hard work with us, for the enjoyment of many friendly people, at the slight risk that someone may rip off his ideas to make money out of it. I think there are easier ways for dodgy people to make money than to build midiboxes for profit!! It takes a long time to build them, it would probably be easier to work for money at maccas and buy a real logic control than to build this one, but I enjoy the process, the challenge, and having complete creative control over what I build! I'm just throwing ideas out in the open, I'm not challenging anyone's thinking, or disagreeing with anyone. We all see things differently. Maybe we will find a way, one day, of having a midibox convention! C'mon, if Thorsten can make this midibox project happen, surely someone can think of an idea to make this a reality he he! (maybe wishful thinking ;)) have fun all, from Steve

What will you be controlling with it? will you be using motorfaders?

Oh my goodness! My jaw really dropped when I saw those pics! Thank you TK, for sharing your adventures with us!!! BTW, I have a simple VCF circuit somewhere if someone wants it... based on the (old) ca3080 dual transconductance op amp (though it may be hard to find this chip now)

oh yeah... look on diyaudio.com, to see if anyone has already designed a diy adat interface... (would be very cool !) another option... see if you can get an old adat tape machine, with a busted mechanism, or stuffed heads... I believe it is possible to use such a device to interface adat to analogue devices. good luck, from Steve

Wow!! this looks like a very cool, and educational site! I spent ages looking on the net for hacks like this, and never found them till now! Thanks uclaros! BTW I once tried hooking up 2 sblives and one sb vibra 128, using cubase sx, to get 6 analogue I/O, it found all the inputs, but would only record on one stereo pair at a time... (But all outputs worked at the same time, which was interesting!!... a cheap way to do outboard processing on your favorite outboard gear ;D) I currently use 2 sblives purely for the midi interfaces! Does anyone know of a hack to get a sblive working on a mac? There is a mac version out there, but apparently The PC version (cheaper) won't work on a mac. (I tried it anyway, without success!) And the driver download for the mac version says not to try to use the mac drivers with a pc sblive. will be checking out this site properly soon! ;D

not a soldering iron in site!

BTW Shagg, now's the time to ask about assigning controller knobs to mixvibes, while everyone is looking at your posts!

try it and see if it works, if not then 447780's are not too expensive anyway.

Hey, you can decorate your midibox with as many flashing LED's as you want! Just pretend that they are doing something important! become popular with your friends! ;D ;) Be cool like Michael J Fox and the Dellorean in 'back 2 the future' or Jackie Chan's Cordia in 'Cannonball Run' (Lots of LED's, and mjf's flux capacitor) ;D

Hey Iain, Wow! that sounds really cool! but kinda scary at the same time! Hey Ian, How are you interfacing the triggers to midi? some kind of CV to midi converter? (I thought about building edrum once, but bought a yamaha dd55 instead... I still haven't got 'round to pulling the PCB out, and mounting it in it's own rack case, cos banging the crap out of the pads is surely going to give the PCB grief!!) One thing I hate about yamaha gear is that they dress up consumer gear to make you think it is a semi-pro unit, when it isn't  The kick pedal on mine really sucks! BTW, if you need to find a source of triggers, Jaycar (Auckland) have transducers, in a white case, (its meant to be a buzzer) which you can pull apart, though I haven't tested this for triggering yet. Here in Australia, they are AUS$3 ea, so I don't know how much you guys will pay. By the way, sorry supraanimo for getting off topic here! edit... Hey Dan, can I join your club now? **** ;) ;D

Ok, so it is well above the minimum current handling!

The 7805's can vary between one another, and if you damage them, they can start to regulate at higher than 5v!